Crippled Black Phoenix gig was one of my most anticipated lives in Thessaloniki since I was going to catch them for the first time (I wasn’t lucky enough to see them in one of their previous visits in Greece).

When I arrived at Eightball Club, Tuber had just started their performance with “Smoked Up Notes”, their recently released digital single. The trio, coming from Serres , sucked us in their trippy, groovy instrumental pandemonium. Their guitar’s themes were perfectly connected with their rhythm section, where the guitar wrote a loop, a melody or a riff and then it was working on them with some more themes, effects etc. creating a wonderful atmosphere. Maybe the addition of a second guitar would make their sound even better and let their guitarist free to “draw”.

But since it works like that, I don’t think it as something necessary. Tuber really impressed us and left us full of hopes for much better things to come. Definitely we’re expecting a lot and I would dare to name them as the Greek edition of Monkey3.

Sleepstream from Thessaloniki took the stage… They’re a six-piece band – including a violinist and the only girl in the group, playing something like electronic cello – and their music could be described as kind of post rock where the violin and cello add something extra in their sound. To be honest there wasn’t something surprising or special in their music. Don’t judge me wrong. Personally I’m not a fan of post rock (it’s not my kind of thing anymore) so I’m not the best judge here. But I’m sure they (at least) satisfied any post rock fans present. Overall they are a fresh new band, having the time and possibilities to evolve as one of the major representatives of Greek post rock scene.

The time has come for Greaves’ and his mates to get up on stage. Our expectations were highly raised when we learned what happened in their Athens’ show the previous night. They started with the first three songs from “Mankind The Crafty Ape”. At this point they had some sound problems with their second guitar but soon enough they were almost gone. Their singer’s voice seemed quite weird to me since we were used to their previous one’s vocals. All CBP’s members were good musicians and sympathetic figures, far away from rock-star glamour shit.

They broke the band-audience barrier quite easily right from the start and this communication continued through their entire performance. Its peak was when “Rise Up And Fight” ended and it was time for their encore. Then the crowd started singing “Burnt Reynolds” melody and here you go CBP were back on stage playing it(Greaves recently stated that this kind of “interaction” started from Greece and now it happens in all their gigs). Before you notice it, Greaves was among us singing… Their final goodnight was “Bella ciao/El Pueblo unido, jamás será vencido” where the audience started “dancing” and paid their respect to the band.

I would like to notice Greaves’ comments about Greece’s current situation. He deprecate the British mass media for their propaganda about Greek crisis, suggesting that the Greek people are responsible for it, bringing CBP to the same front we stand, dedicating – and at the same time wishing - us to “Rise Up And Fight”.

Overall their setlist was balanced, emphasizing to their newest songs, including a couple of surprises too. Gig’s duration was a little shorter than the one in Athens due to the two supporting bands and of course the constant problem of Eightball which opens afterwards as a club. We all enjoyed the live, satisfaction was bigger than expected. We’ll be waiting them again soon. Until then… We thank them from the bottom of our fists!